Tenor Paul Asciak, the man who discovered the talent of the internationally renowned Joseph Calleja, died yesterday at age 92.
His dying wish, his wife told Times of Malta, was for Calleja to sing at his funeral, to be held at his favourite church, St Paul the Shipwreck, in Valletta later this week.
“He made me promise to ask Joseph to sing for Paul one last time,” his wife Bice said.
Calleja is only too happy to comply, saying of his career mentor: “His is a death that I won’t really accept or register for a long time.”
His trumpet-like voice, Calleja said, was legendary “but it is his gentlemanly demeanour and caring tuition and mentoring that I shall miss most”. Calleja consulted him and sought his advice till the very end.
Mr Asciak was Malta’s first renowned international tenor, making his debut in 1946 at 23.He performed regularly at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome and was part of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Company from 1952 to 1958, sharing the stage with renowned singers such as Maria Callas, Dame Joan Sutherland, Anita Cerquetti, and Dame Joan Hammond.
Mr Asciak also appeared several times on BBC television and ITV.
His guest appearances at the Radio City Opera House in Malta, the Orpheum Theatre and the Argotti Gardens were eagerly anticipated and received with much acclaim.
Despite his success, he retired at his peak in 1961, aged 38.
“Long stretches of time away from my family meant I was not really seeing my four children, William, Ronnie, Michael and Marion, grow up. My wife was, understandably, never at ease with this situation and perhaps it was too much to expect continued, unqualified support. I decided to retire and come back to Malta and see my children grow,” he told The Sunday Times of Malta a few years ago.
Back in Malta he always worked in musical environments and for a time was even general manager at the Manoel Theatre.
Personal tragedy struck during this time. Mr Asciak’s only daughter, Marion, succumbed to cancer to 1986, aged 40. “There is nothing more terrible than burying one’s own child,” he said. Sometime later his first wife Rina fell ill and eventually he lost her, too.
Fourteen years ago, Mr Asciak met and married Bice, an opera lover, and the two shared many happy moments during this “short time”, travelling far and wide together, among other reasons, to follow Calleja’s performances.
“We had a good life together. Paul was a godsend to me: he filled the gap in my life after my husband died,” she said yesterday. She described him as considerate, always ready to listen and “very patient, which I’m not”.
Mr Asciak encountered Calleja in his 70s when his friend Lawrence Borg rang his doorbell and begged him to listen to the voice of “a big, callow young man of just 16”. He auditioned him and sensed immediately that the boy would go very far.
“I sought to pass on to him what I had learnt and what pitfalls to avoid and how to gear every aspect of his life to the well-being and development of his voice,” he said.
He also prepared the young man for the sacrifices of the singing world. Calleja’s mother, Rita, recalled: “God sent us an honest man to guide and train my son.”
Mr Asciak’s old friend, architect Richard England, said: “Joseph gave Paul a second life... he passed on to him all his technique. We lost an institution and I am much poorer... I lost a dear friend.”
His friend Fr Michael Agius described him as the most amiable and respected person, with three loves: “God, his family and St Paul.”
There is no doubt that his love of opera remained with him till the end. “The voice is the last thing that dies, because when we’re about to leave the world, we just sigh and let go,” Mr Asciak once told The Sunday Times.